Maine band's twang goes national

The Mallett Brothers Band has played hundreds of shows and logged tens of thousands of miles bringing its down-home sound as far west as Colorado and to places like Tennessee and Arkansas.

By Chad BerndtsonFor The Patriot Ledger

Far from the raging debate over just what constitutes an alt-country or country-rock band these days – does every hint of twang in an otherwise standard-issue indie rock band deserve the label? – there’s an audience that likes its country-ish music honest, unpretentious and lived-in.

That’s the M.O. of the Mallett Brothers Band, the Portland, Maine-based sextet that’s building a national audience gradually, organically and patiently. Over the past few years, the group has played hundreds of shows and logged tens of thousands of miles bringing its down-home sound as far west as Colorado and to places like Tennessee and Arkansas, where its members were happily surprised to find word of mouth had beat them there.

“We’ve been back to Arkansas I think two or three times now, and to Texas a few times, and places like that have been really good to us,” said singer/guitarist Luke Mallett, one of the namesake brothers. “The music actually beat us there – people were contacting us saying they’d heard the records and that we had to come there. We’ll keep going back.”

The fall will put the Malletts back on long-distance tour, but for the summer, they’ll play mostly regional dates, including a “barn show” on Friday, June 20, at Holmes Farm in Plymouth. (The show is part of a new series at Holmes Farm presented in partnership with the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, spearheaded by local singer/songwriter Hayley Sabella and others.)

Luke and brother Will, who sings and plays guitar and banjo, started the band in 2009, and the current six-man lineup includes guitarist and mandolinist Nate Soule, guitarist and dobro player Wally Wenzel, bassist Nick Leen and drummer Brian Higgins. Alt-country is the core sound but everything from folk, bluegrass, rock and even punk turns up in their songs and hints at the band members’ varied backgrounds. Luke Mallett, Leen and Soule, for example, were previously in a funk and hip-hop band.

Cultivating a national audience is now the priority, Mallett said, but without spreading the group too thin.

“If it wasn’t for New England, we wouldn’t be on the road at all. We don’t have any support at all. It’s our home record sales and shows that put us out there,” Mallett said. “But we have no thoughts of leaving Maine. We’re proud of where we come from and we try to let everyone know wherever we go – especially people who know nothing about Maine – that, you bet there’s a country band from Maine traveling around to play. There’s a lot of support for the genre here that people often don’t know about.”

No question the Malletts have a musical heritage. Their father, Dave Mallett, is a renowned Maine folk singer/songwriter who’s had songs recorded by Alison Krauss, John Denver, Emmylou Harris and others. The Mallett family lived in Nashville from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, returning to Maine when Luke and Will were about pre-teen age.

The band continues to gain visibility. It’s opened for the likes of Toby Keith and just this past weekend, the Charlie Daniels Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Mallett confirms a follow-up to the band’s sturdy 2013 album “Land” is on the way.

“It’s in the works,” said Mallett. “We’re writing at the moment and have a lot of ideas, though we haven’t yet started recording. It’s coming soon.”